How To Improve The Security Of Your Door Lock

Introduction

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that 1 in 66 homes are burgled each year. You obviously cannot stop thieves from doing what they want to do, but you sure can prevent their attacks on you and your family. The doors are those silent guardians whom you can rely on for this matter. However, in order to rely on them, you will need to make them reliable enough; and therefore, you need to strengthen them and the locks in them to the maximum. In this article, we have listed the ways you can add extra security to your door and your door locks so that you can call up an expert locksmith in Melbourne right away, and begin the protection process.

How To Make Your Door Lock More Secure

Your doors are pretty much the only shields between invaders and your home. So it is imperative that you do everything in your power and budget to provide them with the highest level of security. While you do that, remember, your front door is not the only entry to your house. Give the same level of protection to your front doors, back doors, as well as your garage door. Here are some ways you can improve the security of your doors –

Upgrade Your Door Lock

The first thing about your door security is the door lock. No matter what another security measure you apply, if the door lock is fragile, it will be easy to break into your house. If you are not sure that your locks are good enough, it is time that you consult professional locksmiths in Melbourne and get a more secure lock for your door. Your lock should protect you against bump keys and at the same time, the metal needs to be strong enough so that it cannot be broken with blunt force or cannot be drilled into.

The best lock to opt for is deadbolt lock since it is harder to manipulate than a spring-loaded latch. In this case, you cannot move the bolt without rotating the lock core.

It is important that your door’s deadbolt fully extends into the door-jam opening, which should be further reinforced with a strong metal strike plate. The bolt also should not have any exposed exterior screws, those are easier to break.

You may consider an “exit-only” deadlock. These do not have an exterior keyhole and can only be locked or unlocked from inside your home.

Pair Your Lock With The Right Lock Cylinder

Your lock should be paired with a high-security door lock cylinder, which guards you against lock picking, lock bumping, or lock drilling attacks. Burglars usually work within a limited amount of time, so the more challenging your lock is to pick, the better.

Get a lock cylinder which uses security pins and wafers so that your lock becomes challenging to pick. Ideally, it should also have anti-bump and anti-drill features. An anti-drill lock will utilize specially crafted steel inserts that cause drill bits to glance off the cylinder, making your lock even safer.

Make Sure The Door Hinges Are Strong Enough

If intruders are not able to bypass your door locks, they will most likely target your door hinges. An attack on your door hinges can potentially dislodge your entire door or pull it out of the frame, giving burglars open access to your home.

If you have outward-facing hinges, you need to change them right away; these are easy to thwart as they are more accessible from the outside. You need to change the direction your door opens, so that it can have inward-facing hinges. In case that seems like too huge an undertaking, alternatively, you can use enhanced security studs, corrugated pins, and 3-inch set screws to your existing door hinges to give them extra protection.

Install A Sturdy Strike-Plate

A strike plate is a crucial part of your door security. Even if you have strong deadlock bolts, without a sturdy strike plate, your front door remains vulnerable to brute attacks. The strike plate is an additional piece of metal meant to hold the lock bolt in a place where it enters the door frame. In order to have it protect your lock, it needs to be properly installed by an expert locksmith.

One way to do this is by installing strike plates with 2.5-3 inches long screws so that they attach it well into the stud of the door-jam, reducing the probability of them being easily destroyed. Another option is to set up a box strike plate. It is basically a very durable strike plate with a steel cup instead of a simple hole. The bolt locks into a cup that is much stronger than a flimsy hole.

Reinforce Your Doors

We have covered the topic of lock security, but the lead role indoor security goes to – of course, the door itself! If your door has a hollow core, it is more fragile and therefore, defenceless against forceful attacks. Unfortunately, that is how most doors are made. So it will be smart if you get your door checked by a professional locksmith in Melbourne, and install an exterior door with at least one solid core. For better protection, you can go for steel or some other strong metalcore. Doors with metal cores have metal inserts that add more strength than simple hardwood.

Add Security Screens

What is more secure than one door? Two doors! Add extra protection to your door by adding another door in front of it, called a security screen. It is a perforated metal barrier that has room for additional locks. It is fitted to open out toward the entrance, so kicking attacks that rely on pushing the door open are less likely to work. The stronger the metal and the wielding, the better your door can defend itself. On top of that, the additional locks in this secondary door add another set of lock security as they also will contain a deadlock bolt, a lock cylinder, and a strike plate.

If you see your door slide, you can get key locks both at the top and the bottom. On the other hand, you can also get a metal rod and fit it along your door’s track. This will prevent it from automatically sliding open, while you have locked the door.

Invest In Good Hardware

There are a few more tools you can use to add some more protection to your door lock:

• Door lock reinforcer: These are added to the existing lock of your door so the locks and bolts are encased within them. These guard them against lock picking and breaking attempts. However, before installing them, check their compatibility with your door lock.
• Metal slipcovers: These are items shaped like empty hardcover books, which firmly hold the screws and the lock in place. These are installed by taking off the current lock and securing the cover to the door with screws before re-installing the lock. This layer of hardened material keeps the door from fracturing around the holes that have weakened it, so the door is protected against force.
• Door jammers: Made from plastic or steel, door jammers are placed on the floor at a distance of at least half an inch behind your door, to keep the door from opening all the way even when unlocked.
• Door security bars: These devices are attached at the centre of your door to hold it against a kicking attack on your door. They are basically heavy-duty steel bars that sit on two L-bolts screwed into the jamb or the studs near the door frame.

Install Security System

Even after you have secured your doors and your locks, it is always smart to have an alarm system installed, if it permits your budget; so your whole neighbourhood learns about any burglary attempt on your house and can inform the police. There are loads of security systems available in the market today in every budget, so you can pick your choice. However, you would have to talk to your neighbours first about it, and also to your local police to learn if there is any law against it in your state.

Install Home Automation

We are living in a digital age where Alexa and Cortana rule everything. So why not use automation like them to protect your home too? Home automation can give you remote (or scheduled) control of lights, door locks, security cameras, smoke alarms, and every other safety device. You can get real-time alerts about any suspicious activity right to your mobile or tablet, so you can respond quickly as well as provide evidence of thievery to the police.

Secure Your Home Wi-Fi

Having talked about smart devices to protect your home, we should also warn you about smart thieves. While your automated devices do protect your home better, your Wi-Fi can make them vulnerable to hacking; and you may end up getting completely misleading feed on your device, and no alarm may go off. So contact a technician while installing the Wi-Fi and protect it by:

• Securing your wireless router.
• Enabling WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) or WPA2 encryption.
• Anonymizing your home network.
• Using a firewall, and keeping the expiration date of the same in check.
• Installing antivirus and anti-malware protection and keeping their expiration dates in check as well.
• Creating strong passwords, and regularly changing them.
• Not giving out your Wi-Fi password to anyone you do not know or do not completely trust.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of things you can do to secure your home. Throw in a surveillance system to this lot, and you are golden. Nevertheless, you cannot do any of this all by yourself, and more importantly, if you are not an expert, you will not know if your doors are already installed with good protection or not, and may act in a way that you spend way more than you were supposed to. That is why it is always recommended in cases like these, to contact certified, trustworthy, and professional locksmith services in Melbourne, and follow their guidance through the procedure.